Work Text:
[Click]
[RUSSIA]
You know, as much as I'd love to drawl and talk my mind off, I think I'd have to be quick with this one.
[GRAND PRINCIPALITY OF KIEV]
You? Not spending your time making things longer than it should be? I wonder what you have to do after this.
[RUSSIA]
Not much, actually. Considering I'm technically jobless now, I'm free to do whatever I want. It's more that— (Pause) Oh, you cheeky bastard, Kyrylo. You had me nearly monologuing!
[GRAND PRINCIPALITY OF KIEV]
I do not know why you actually both speak so little yet so much at the same time, Yelena.
[RUSSIA]
That's only something someone close to me would say. Well, you were Rus Land's Lefthand, so that's close enough to me. Anyway, let's not talk too much of stuff out of our context of today's topic. Because Kiev had been bothering me more than I'd like—which is weird, why not bother Ukraine—the topic is something correlating to him. Which is about how Personifications can foresee the future. An easy task, considering the ghost of the master of foresight within Rus is right by me.
[GRAND PRINCIPALITY OF KIEV]
How funny, Yelena. I tried bothering Diana, but I realised it was Apolinariya in control and not her. And she can't see me because of that. So, obviously, my other option was you, as you are the only Zemstvo of Rus to have survived this day and can see me.
[RUSSIA]
You could've just went to Belarus...
[GRAND PRINCIPALITY OF KIEV]
Oh, so Dzmitriy can see with his eyes open, now?
[RUSSIA]
Only because he died once. (Harrumph) Stop diverting the topic, Kyrylo. No, you're definitely doing this intentionally because you don't want to talk about it. You don't get to choose, I feel. Just talk about your foresight.
[GRAND PRINCIPALITY OF KIEV]
Why must I be the one to explain when you yourself can? You also have the ability to foresee, Yelena.
[RUSSIA]
It's not fun if I'm the one who always does the explaining.
[GRAND PRINCIPALITY OF KIEV]
Always so picky. Fine, then, I am only doing this because I have nothing better to do. The afterlife is not giving me much entertainment after all. The only thing we do there is hunt and try to survive without killing each other, which might be entertaining to few, but not to me. I can hardly do anything that piques my interest there. The best thing is to talk to the rest of the principalities, which is alright to a degree, but it gets mildly irritating whenever someone brings up Vaivydas.
Well, that is it for the whining. You want to know anything I can give about my foresight? It is something that many Zemstvo would repeat in their life. That the only reason why they exist as one is to serve the people and their leaders. Which is true, to an extent. That is indeed what is done for the past thousands of years.
Though because our existence is not much known to the people, we would often overlook a very important part of ourselves. In how I see things, another reason as to why Zemstvo exist is to show how the future would be to the people and their leaders and to guide them to it.
Though so far... the act of guiding can only go so far. You cannot interfere with what you know to change the course of what should happen.
We, the Zemstvo, are practically beings of foresight. Our existence spell what would come in the future, near or far. And it is actually most easiest to see with our issues, rather than depending on the random outbursts of foreshadowing we usually say. While, yes, those foreshadowing words may help, but we usually forget that we ever said that unless we have our eyes wide open. Children, on the other hand, are much more physical than words.
[RUSSIA]
Why are you looking at me that way?
[GRAND PRINCIPALITY OF KIEV]
No thing in particular.
[RUSSIA]
I can hear you lying.
[GRAND PRINCIPALITY OF KIEV]
How many children do you have, Yelena?
[RUSSIA]
Oh, my lord, you needn't bring that up, you know. (Sigh) Thirty. Well, no, technically twenty-nine, but by pattern recognition, I know another one's going to appear sooner or later. Probably sooner. My hands have been turning black the past decade.
[GRAND PRINCIPALITY OF KIEV]
That is a... great increase since before. Prior when you were Rus Land it was just one third that number—
[RUSSIA]
Just continue your foresight explanation, Kyrylo.
[GRAND PRINCIPALITY OF KIEV]
Hm, fine. They say I have the ability to see the future, though in reality, it is nothing but realising that your children spell out the future more than anything else will be. Like you, for example. Why are you looking at me that way?
[RUSSIA]
No thing in particular.
[GRAND PRINCIPALITY OF KIEV]
Well, either way, when I first started out as your Lefthand, I was not immediately present with the ability to see the future. It was until the first batch of children became fully-fledged Zemstvo did I truly understand what was going on with them and the patterns that I kept seeing. What I am saying is, your children would be your successor. The fact that you would even need a successor is surprising in the first place, because that would mean that your power was degrading than its prime state.
But then you kept having children. Not biologically, I know you had only one and the next one took a thousand years or whatever, but you still kept getting children somehow, one way or another. First came Dzmitriy, then Diana, followed by Irakly, who dragged Apolinariya with him. Of course there is also your precious Yakun, Vitoslav, Vitaly, whatever you want to call him. And then came Posidosiya, Zinoviya, the two Moscows of Yelizaveta and Aleksandra, and finally Ermioniya of the Upper Oka.
Ten children, Yelena. The moment I started to realise the power the first five accumulated, it only got clearer to me that your end was near. And I was right, because not long after Diana and Apolinariya merged to be Artemy, you died by the hands of the Tatars. Or Mongols. Same thing, I do not like them either way. I am horribly surprised to know that you actually married one.
[RUSSIA]
That wasn't my choice to do so, Kyrylo.
[GRAND PRINCIPALITY OF KIEV]
It does not matter. What matters is that it does not take much knowledge to see the future from these children. The only thing you need to do is to simply see what their interests are, and then there you have it, the Zemstvo of the future would replace the Zemstvo of the present. Whether or not it would be a violent one, only time would tell. Though I am actually sure it depends on how the parent treats their children. You were a good mother, Yelena, maybe that's why you were killed by the Horde rather than your children.
[RUSSIA]
Very inspiring, Kyrylo. That sure didn't stop Russian Empire from being killed by her own son. Or that Moscovia killed a lot of Rus Land's children anyway.
(Pause)
[GRAND PRINCIPALITY OF KIEV]
I suppose it is done.
[RUSSIA]
That didn't take too long, did it? Well, you can go now. And because of that, I shouldn't draw this any longer.
Soon we will meet again.
[Click]